CNN is cutting 6% of its workforce as the news organization tries to reinvent itself for TV’s digital future.
Facing an exodus of viewers and a systemic decline in pay TV subscriptions, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news channel said Thursday it will cut 200 employees from the TV side of the business while investing in the digital operation.
“The changes we’re announcing today are part of an ongoing response by this great news organization to profound shifts in the way audiences in America consume news,” CNN Chairman Mark Thompson told employees in a memo.
Thompson said parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has committed $70 million to the effort to develop new subscription-driven digital products.
The plans for reinvention include the development of a direct-to-consumer CNN product. “It’s the early days, but we’ve already established that there’s immense demand for it not just in America but around the world,” Thompson wrote.
The cuts were widely expected as CNN has seen its ratings drop since 2021 while cord cutting steadily erodes the revenue source that pay TV subscriptions provide.
At a recent defamation trial that CNN lost and then settled, the network presented financial data that showed the network’s revenue declined by 20% between 2021 and 2023.
Thompson said the network is looking to generate $1 billion in digital revenue by 2030. The executive added that the hiring for the digital side of the business will eventually offset the head count losses for the TV operation.
The move is the company’s response to the shift away from traditional TV by young viewers who have turned to streaming video and other online sources for news.
CNN has gone through several waves of layoffs since it became a part of Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022.
CNN is not the only TV organization facing financial pressures from the changing television landscape. Staff cuts are anticipated at ABC News and NBC News, although they are not expected to be near the scale of the CNN workforce reductions.
